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New Leaf Ventures is a private investment company focused on tech and tech-powered businesses.

Elevation Partners is an integrated marketing company. A member of the Gush Digital Group.

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Why I Love Working

My day starts early, about 5:00am, and many times I wake-up before my alarm. (You can read about how I start my day.) I enjoy sleeping as much as most people, but it’s hard to stay in bed when there’s something burning inside you. I know it sounds cliche’ but it’s true that being passionate about something is the only way to do good work. But what does it really mean to put your heart into something?

For me, it means to put everything into it, which include my heart, soul, strength, and mind.

But we can’t fake passion. People won’t pour everything into nothing. We’re smarter than that. We can be responsible without passion and tick the boxes on our to-do lists but only passionate people will turn those boxes in awesome inventions and impactful solutions. Because we can’t fake passion, it’s important to know what we’re truly passionate about, which is, by definition, something we’re willing to “suffer” for (the definition of passion is suffering).

How do we discover what we’re passionate about? How do we know if we have the right passion?

I think this process is different for everyone, but I’ll share mine. For me, it started when I began thinking deeply about the idea of “value”. I asked myself a simple question, “What is this all worth?” I wanted to know what the stuff in my life were worth.

But first I needed a framework to objectively weigh the value of the things in my life, and I came up with the following criteria:

Materials Used – Valuable things are made out of valuable materials. Jewelry is expensive because of the precious metals and stones, such as gold and diamonds, that are used to make it. The most expensive dishes use expensive ingredients. There’s even an ice cream sundae priced at $1000 USD because it has gold in it. The more valuable the materials the more valuable the item.

Craftsmanship – Valuable things are made with intricacy and expertise. A good example of this is the famous Hermes Birkin bag which can cost as much as $150,000 USD!

Wikipedia had this description of it’s craftsmanship:“The bags are handmade in France by expert artisans. The company’s signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s, is another distinctive feature.

Each bag is hand-sewn, buffed, painted, and polished, taking several days to finish. An average bag is created in 48 hours. Leathers are obtained from different tanners in France, resulting in varying smells and textures. Because of the individual craftsmanship, other details of the bags may not all match. The company justifies the cost of the Birkin bag, compared to other bags, based on the meticulous craftsmanship and scarcity.”

Great craftsmanship, handmade stuff, intricately designed things command great value. Before you think this is just about stuff, please read on.

Function – Valuable things achieve functions that are valuable to us. A good example of this is the price difference between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro. Because the Pro is more powerful, we cough up more money for it. This is easy to understand as the concept is simple: people greatly value things that have high utility, even perceived utility.

Rarity – One of a kind, limited edition, these are some statements used to describe valuable things. When something is scarce its value goes up. An example is the Enzo Ferrari limited edition car with only 349 units made and now sells at more than a $1,000,000 per car. The rarer something is the more valuable it is. This too is an easy concept to understand.

Lifespan – Valuable things last. Fads don’t and lose value. Truly valuable things hold their value and stand the test of time. They make great investments because they appreciate, endure, and can be passed on.

Maker – I like to explain this with an example. If I draw a doodle on a napkin (like I always do), the waiter, when clearing out the table will throw it away. If Picasso drew on a napkin, we would fight for it, frame it, then sell it at Sotheby’s for millions! The maker counts. A white shirt is more than a white shirt when a guy on a horse is embroidered onto it. A car isn’t just a car when Ferrari makes it. Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t just make shelter. DaVinci didn’t just put color on a canvas. Great stuff come from great makers
As I applied this framework to the things in my life and the things I hoped to have someday, cars, clothes, toys, awards, and many of the commonly desired stuff, I realized that of the most valuable things in the world that one can invest in, the single most valuable thing, objectively, based on the criteria I had set, were people.

People are made of living cells. We’re made of life. Science is always trying to copy what we’re made of.

People are intricately crafted. Take the biggest loser you know and take the most expensive car, and the person’s nervous system, respiratory system, reproductive system, and other systems, are still more intricately crafted and designed.

People are incredibly functional. To prove that we instinctively understand that people are more than just their economic value is how we take care of our kids who bring us joy and hope and excitement, even as they are economic drains in the short run. We understand the value of people when we see them without greed because we remember that they can make us laugh, they can comfort, they can inspire, they can make and invent, and they can transcend.

People are rare. Every person is not just limited edition but single edition. It doesn’t get rarer than that. If I don’t love the people around me, there won’t be a David to love them. If you don’t do your part, no one will enjoy the contribution only you could have made. That’s how important every single person is. That’s how valuable you are.

People have souls which are eternal. Investments in a soul are eternal investments. I have a business partner who is an atheist, and he once told me, “I don’t believe in an afterlife but I do believe that we live on through the lives of people we’ve impacted.” So whether you’re a believer (like me) or like my partner, we agree that people are a valuable investment that has the potential to appreciate infinitely.

People are made by God, the greatest designer. This belief has helped me calibrate my heart to love those many people have identified as hopeless because if God made them then there’s a spark of hope in them because the God I trust in is a God of love. Now, if you’re like my business partner, you don’t believe that God made man, then you believe that man made man, and, like we’ve already listed, based on the criteria above, he or she is most valuable. So the most valuable made the most valuable.

I realized how foolish I was to chase metal, cloth, bricks, cement, stones, and the fiat and failing to intensely, deliberately, and wisely invest in developing people. People to me were means to an end, forgetting that they were what was valuable. More of my time, money, and energy went to achieving and amassing stuff I no longer enjoy, no longer use, nor even remember, much less find valuable. But the relationships I had cultivated were appreciating in value.

I decided to change my values-system. I had objectively identified people to be valuable, and I was not going to waste another moment chasing things of less value.

But that still doesn’t answer my post’s title on why I love working. Here’s the answer:

Now that I know that I have to invest in people, I need to put myself in as great a place to wisely invest in as many people as possible. I need to be wealthy so that I have money to invest, that’s why I need to deliver valuable products and service, because that’s what people exchange money for. I need to be healthy so I have strength to share, that’s why I need to exercise and learn how to rest. I need to be wise so that I can guide and teach, that’s why we need strategy and metrics and evaluations. I need to be organized and efficient so that I maximize the 24 hours we all have, because there’s an opportunity cost. Those who don’t have won’t be able to give, those who are weak cannot carry heavy loads, and those who are selfish won’t have a heart big enough to offer. So I need to, and more importantly, want to, become that person who is better able to invest in people.

I love to work because working is the tangible expression of my passion to chase things of value, particularly the value of people.

In Luke 10: 27, some people asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. This was His answer:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus was not just telling us what command to follow. He was giving us the greatest investment tip, a tip that leads to lasting value. In a world that has muddied the definition of love, I like to keep my understanding of it simple: It means to offer everything. Now we come full circle, as I mentioned above that nothing can be achieved without passion, and passion means to throw everything in. And when we throw all that we are to chase the truly valuable, the returns are both infinite and eternal.